Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Oscar Pistorius murder conviction sought by S Africa prosecutors

Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius is pictured ahead of his sentencing hearing at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in this 16 October 2014 file photo.
South African judges have heard an appeal on whether athlete Oscar Pistorius should be convicted of murder instead of culpable homicide.

The Paralympian was released from prison last month after serving one year of his five-year term for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Pistorius, 28, shot her through a locked bathroom door in 2013 but insists he thought she was an intruder.
He could be sent back to jail if appeal judges overturn the original verdict.
Pistorius is currently under house arrest, and did not attend the hearing at South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
When I saw Reeva Steenkamp's mother June walk into court, she looked clam and stoic but one could not miss the tragedy unfolding inside. No-one from the Pistorius family was present, except for their spokeswoman Anneliese Burgess.
The appeal was heard by some of South Africa's most senior judges from across the racial and gender divide. They did not take any new evidence. They simply heard arguments from the prosecution and defence over whether the lower-ranking trial judge applied the law correctly - especially the charge of dolus eventualis, also known as common-law murder.
In South African law, this charge applies if the accused knew they might kill someone but still went ahead with their course of action. The prosecution argued that Pistorius should have foreseen that by firing four shots through a locked door into a toilet cubicle, the person behind the door would have been killed.
Reeva Steenkamp pictured in June 2012
The trial judge disagreed and the prosecution tried to convince the appeal judges to overturn that verdict. A whole day was set aside for the hearing, but it ended early. The judges will give their ruling at a later date.
The prosecution also want his jail sentence to be increased from five years to a minimum of 15 years.
The final ruling will not be known for some weeks, reports say.
Pistorius was found guilty of the culpable homicide of his 29-year-old girlfriend at a trial in October last year.
Source: BBC

No comments: